Fashion intelligence company Jellibeans launches new data-driven SaaS analytics tool for jelli.studio to help fashion brands and suppliers compete with fast fashion industry giants

Imagine giving smaller fashion brands, traditional retailers, and suppliers the means to compete with on-demand fast fashion giants like Shein? That’s exactly what fashion data and analytics company Jellibeans had in mind when they announced StyleDocs for jelli.studio. Could this be the shift that many traditional fashion houses have been praying for?

For many fashion industry experts, the rise and continued growth of Shein, the world’s most popular fashion brand, has come at a huge cost to the fashion industry as a whole. Valued at around $66 Billion USD, and poised for a long-rumored IPO, the fast-fashion juggernaut looks set to define the rules of engagement for many years ahead.

All of which is bad news for traditional fashion brands, including some giants of the industry. If longstanding global brands like Nike and Zara are struggling to compete, what hope for smaller brands? Jellibeans and its CEO Joanne Chow believe they have the answer, and it turns out, it’s all about having access to the right data, and the right intelligence.

Levelling the Fast Fashion Field

The global fashion landscape, and specifically the rise of fast fashion retail, has been evolving at an incredible pace in recent years. Industry giants and traditional brands are increasingly making way for ruthlessly innovative IPO-bound newcomers like Shein who have built a new fashion empire on the back of their ability to digitize decision-making and optimize fashion design, manufacture and retail infrastructure in ways previously inconceivable.

To make the right decisions you need the right data, which is why Shein’s management software collects colossal amounts of near-instant data about which items are selling and which aren’t on a global scale. To illustrate the sheer size of the operation, sources now estimate that back in 2021 Shein added anywhere between 2,000 and 10,000 individual styles to its catalog each and every day within a six month period.

Let’s not pretend however that the trend towards digitalization is a remnant of the eCommerce boom — it’s obvious to most industry experts that digitization and the application of data-driven intelligence is the cornerstone of future growth in 2024 and beyond.

Today however, the gap between traditional brands and suppliers aspiring to catch up with data-driven retail processes is rapidly widening. Traditional brands and their verticals have been left behind. They are neither equipped with, nor capable of building a database and infrastructure to compete with tech-first, digitally native retail platforms. Thankfully, the people at Jellibeans have been working on a solution that could level the playing field.

StyleDocs: The Democratization of Fashion Retail Intelligence

Founded in 2019, Jellibeans describes itself as an ‘innovative fashion intelligence and analytics company’. Their new StyleDocs feature, which can be accessed through their recently announced AI intelligence platform, jelli.studio, gives its users data-backed information that removes the guesswork involved with designing and manufacturing the latest styles. This makes brands more competitive, improving supply chain efficiency, and ultimately upping the bottom line.

According to Joanne Chow, CEO and co-founder of Jellibeans, “[the] StyleDocs tool is a game changer and an indispensable resource for the digital age….[it’s a] groundbreaking feature that empowers brands and suppliers to not only minimize the guesswork, but to also quickly improve their buying and planning processes as a way to catch up to fast fashion retail incumbents.”

Sounds great, but how does it all work? Of course, the application and integration of digital intelligence is no new thing. Fashion brands have been harnessing the power of data for decades already. The problem is that digital transformation requires a) lots and lots of data, and b) complex technological infrastructure – two things that smaller brands and retailers do not have.

When brands sign up with Jellibeans, and their main product, jelli.studio.com, they gain access to StyleDocs, essentially a hybrid solution which encompasses technology, design, and buyer research. More specifically, the feature enables brands to gather invaluable insights from an algorithm that has been optimized on more than 10 million products, and 100+ data sources including outlets, retailers, fashion brands, resellers, and Web 3.0.

Jellibeans is betting that features like StyleDocs will allow smaller brands competing with Shein to embrace the benefits of the digital age in a matter of days, instead of struggling in a game of catch up over many years. If the future of fashion retail hangs in the balance, this might just be the moment that the scales are reset.